In the spirit of HPP’s 2025 campaign “We care for ourselves, as we care for others” our programming year focuses on creative development, community engagement/offerings, and revenue generation toward sustainability. This year we highlight a new project called Pleasure Power Portal (PPP) exploring acts of memory, pleasure, and ancestral connection through the relationships, places and things that bring us fulfillment. We also continue our signature programming via The Chicago Black Social Culture Map (CBSCM), an archive designed by Honey Pot Performance documenting the lived experiences of Black Chicagoans and social culture from the Great Migration through the rise of house music and beyond. Finally, our creative pedagogical arm, the Creative Design Lab (CDL), is an experimental space designed for individuals to explore new ways of devising and designing performance that resonate with the richness of Afrodiasporic cultures and feminist perspectives as they seek to rejuvenate their creative practices.

2025 Past Fall Programs

HPP 2025 Fill the Pot Fundraiser

Saturday, November 22, 2025

6-10 pm @First Church of the Brethren (425 S. Central Park Blvd)

Through our long-standing mission and in alignment with our core values, we have been able to produce all of our programming at a free/sliding scale price point. In the spirit of our current care campaign, “We care for ourselves as we care for others” and in efforts to raise funds to continue this important work, we are launching a multi-platform fundraising campaign-- ‘Fill the Pot 2025-2026’-- which aims to highlight the voices of the HPP community and build financial support for the continued expansion of our organization rooted on the Westside.

To still donate to HPP, click the link below!

https://givebutter.com/UulUNm

Creative Design Lab: If Then Artist Lab Series

Friday, November 14, 2025

6-10 pm @John J. Louis Hall - Room 226 (1877 Campus Dr, Evanston, IL)

For this year's final installment of the If Then Artist Lab Series, Honey Pot Performance will be at Northwestern University's Abbott Hall. Featured artists will explore performance as a divine instrument. How do we, as creative beings, embody engagement with higher plane energies? How do we build from the power and magic of collective creative decision-making using trust and intuition alongside structured methods? This lab invites participants and witnesses to engage in fluid combinations of improvisation and play, engaging with concepts of ritual, incantation, and divination, and deconstructing scores as methods of problem solving and sites of love & cooperative joy - to reveal the possibilities of collective magic.

The Creative Design Lab (CDL) is an experimental performance space for exploration of new ways of devising and designing aesthetic experiences that engage with Afro Diasporic and feminist realities and narratives to expand their creative practice.

Chicago Black Social Culture Map:

Building Butterflies: Exploring DJ mentorship for women in house music

Sunday, November 9, 2025

2-5 pm @First Church of the Brethren (425 S. Central Park Blvd)

DJ Celeste Alexander brings together several aspiring women DJs in the dance music industry to talk about the importance of mentorship and experienced guidance in learning the craft. Panelists will discuss the development of Alexander’s Butterflies, Beats & Blends program, navigating her thoughts on why it is needed now and the methods used to build skills and confidence. Program participants will share their own experiences about what they gained from participating and showcase some of their new skills in a closing DJ showcase.

Lord Thing - Chicago Film Archives Screening

Saturday, November 8, 2025

4:30-7 pm @First Church of the Brethren (425 S. Central Park Blvd)

Partner Programming - Join Chicago Film Archives and Honey Pot Performance for a special screening of Lord Thing (1969, Dir. DeWitt Beall) on Saturday, November 8 at 4:30 PM at First Church of the Brethren. This powerful film traces the transformation of the Vice Lords in Chicago’s North Lawndale community, blending fiction and lived experience to explore self-determination, identity, and community power. A post-screening conversation will follow, featuring local organizers and educators reflecting on violence mitigation, neighborhood histories, and the transformative role of art and literature.

Chicago Black Social Culture Map:

CBSCM Pop Up at History Harvest: Westside Cultural Archive

Saturday, October 11, 2025

11am-3:30pm @Legler Regional Library (115 S Pulaski Ave Chicago, IL 60624)

Partner Programming - History Harvest: The Westside Family is a free, community-centered event hosted by Kenn Cook Jr., Artist-in-Residence at Legler Regional Library, and the Westside Historical Collective. This event marks the kickoff of the Westside Cultural Archive, a digital initiative dedicated to documenting and celebrating the rich cultural history of Chicago’s Westside. Participants of all ages are invited to bring photos, letters, and keepsakes, record oral histories, join workshops, and enjoy creative activities and food.

Participating in this event, Honey Pot Performance's Chicago Black Social Culture Map initiative documents Black social culture from the Great Migration through the early 21st century with a focus on the emergence of house culture in the 1980s. Through the map experience which includes panels, archiving stations, and on site mapping, participants learn how to preserve their own archives and learn about the importance of Chicago’s rich Black social culture history. Catch our pop up activation with the Westside Cultural Archive where you can map your memories, add an entry to the digital map, or record a story.

Honey Pot Performance's Fall 2025 Programs